A good Wednesday match at Oakfield, saw a few ghosts put to bed and I was going to Claygate Lakes near Marden, Kent with a bit of confidence. The positive mental attitude has kicked in again and there are no bad pegs. Claygate is not really my cup of tea, mainly F1s around the pound and a half mark with odd carp thrown in if you are lucky.
It was my turn to drive so picked Mick up at 0545 and steadily drove along the M1 and M25 corridor. The journey was eventful with the Storm Hannah, giving a good buffeting along the way. Still progress was made and only the odd shower dampened our spirits. Both had similar plans on how we were going to approach it, meat and pellet, not too far out unless we could reach the islands.
We had decided to pop into Monk Lakes for breakfast but with plenty of cars in the car park we turned around and went straight to the fishery. A bacon sandwich would fill the gap.
During the Chairman's recuperation, the reins of the club have fallen to the Reverend Tony Roberts, who proceeded to preach his sermon to anyone who could walk round the lake and choose the pegs.
The Reverend in Jovial Spirits. It won't last
Both Chris T and I were selected as his disciples for the day, whilst he sat drinking tea and collecting money. The fishery had selected some "form" pegs and left us with 5 or 6 to fill.
At the draw bag Mick had gone in and came out with peg 12, near to the first bend where the scum was blowing in, normally a good holding area. I came out with peg 4, on the railway bank, again I was happy with the draw and felt I could put together a good weight if the F1s liked my pellet and meat combo.
I set up five rigs to cover top 2+2 left and right, around 6 inches difference, a top 2 plus 3 line, a margin rig and a shallow rig set at 2ft to start with. All were set up on white hydro bar the 2 plus 3 line which was orange KND. All rig lines were .15 to .13 and coupled with size 16 KKMB hooks.
For company I had Clive on 3 and Gino on 6.
Gino prepped and raring to go
Chris W and his carer were on the flyer pegs 1 and 2, Mark Fox was in the final spot along the bank. Mick was on 12, before Josh on 16. Simon, has an uncanny knack of drawing absolute flyers, peg 17 and today was no different. I think he has started having his mail delivered to his peg and has asked for a better WI|FI connection. Terry, you have just got to feel for the bloke, the one time he draws sock on and it is blowing a gale. Holding a pole out would be difficult. Jim Boase was in the next peg with Chris T, match winner on the last two club matches, on 28. John and the Reverend filled the last two pegs. opposite the gaps in the island.
At the all in, I cupped in a medium pot of 4mm sinkers and around a dozen cubes of meat onto the long pole lines. Starting off on the 2 +2 line right I managed to pick off a couple of small f1s before moving to the left side. Another couple of fish and after 45 minutes I reckoned on 8 fish for about 10lb. Clive had a couple of fish fishing longer, but I wanted to leave this line as long as possible. Gino was catching a few on the tip across to the island and I could see both Mark and Mick's elastic coming out of their poles. Chris and George were nicking odd fish. Two hours in and I was still plucking odd fish from each line, fishing a 6mm hard pellet over 4mm feed pellets. Meat was not working .A quick look on both the margin line and shallow rigs and I was waiting too long for a bite. I felt I was going fish for fish with Clive and could not afford to slacken off. After 3 hours I felt it was time to fish the long line. Pushing the rig a section further out produced a couple of better 2lb fish in quick succession and after each one I threw around 10 pellets onto the line.
It was slow going with a couple of fish before the line died. Lifting and dropping helped but the wind was now causing a problem as it pushed through the gap in the islands and the float did not settle properly. A couple of goes on the shallow rig for odd bites but no fish. In hindsight I think it may have been better to stick it out as I am sure the fish were up in the water.
I managed to catch steadily throughout, a couple of fish then 10 minutes without, then repeating itself, but I knew I was way behind Mark and Mick on the edges of the scum. at the all out I thought it would be close between Clive and I.
Mark margin fished for 114lb and second overall
With two sets of scales in operation we started off with Chris, 15- 04 George 14-08 before Clive put 61-04 on the scales. I was next up with my two nets going 76lb. Gino was up next and 31lb of mainly tip caught fish. Mark's three nets put a new leader on the board and 114lb. His first weight over a ton away from the Black Country. Mick pushed him close with 106-08, only a couple of fish behind.
My counsellor hard at work
Josh on his way to 54-08
Simon on his new home placed 92lb. Terry had struggled all day with wind placing 32-04. Jim needed to get away early but still managed 24lb. Chris T, winner of the last two events, made it three on the trot with 128lb from both the margins and across to the island on the tip. John and Tony both struggled with 24-04 and 34-04 respectively.
Overall
1st Chris Thomas 128-00
2nd Mark Fox 114-00
3rd Mick Wright 106-08
4th Simon Watkins 92-00
5th Keith Ashby 76-00
6th Clive Pritchard 61-04
A long journey home taking close to three hours summed up my day, hopefully the car and lorry involved in the accident on the M25 are all OK.
So Mick has done me again to lead 4-2 in the MK Nugget race. Still a long way to go, and Summer is coming.My next match is not for a fortnight at Colemans Cottage but I do have planned a trip to Toft Fisheries near Dunchurch with a couple of work colleagues before then.
